Amid continuing uncertainty over the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased global risks, the region’s economic recovery and progress must be anchored in “a new social contract” of inclusiveness to protect the vulnerable from future shocks, according to the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific for 2022, released by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
In addition to the pandemic, the report shows that regional economies face several downside risks related to supply constraints, rising inflationary pressures, prospects of increases in interest rates, shrinking fiscal space, and the emerging global economic fallout from the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Economic growth in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific is projected to moderate to 4.5 per cent in 2022 and 5 per cent in 2023, compared with an estimated growth rate of 7.1 per cent in 2021. The cumulative output loss due to COVID-19 for the region’s developing economies between 2020 and 2022 is estimated to be nearly $2 trillion.